Ottawa’s Chinese community greeted Chinese president Hu Jintao with praise and protest when he arrived in Ottawa yesterday for his first state visit to Canada since 2005.
Earlier yesterday morning two opposing groups had gathered across from the Westin Hotel, where Jintao will be staying during the three day visit ahead of the G20 conference later this month.
One end, close to Rideau Street, the Falun Dafa Association of Canada had erected banners denouncing the Chinese government’s treatment of Falun Gong Practitioners.
“This is a systematic persecution. Every day we have practitioners tortured and killed. It’s gone on for ten years, so we want to raise our voice,” said Falun Gong practitioner Lucy Zhou.
In the past, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been critical of China’s human rights record, and they are encouraging him to keep it up.
A little way down the street, patriotic Chinese expats were flying their flag and playing drums to welcome their leader.
The Falung Gong supporters only want to show the ugly and bad side of China, said Xing Huang, Chair of the Chinese Heritage Centre, but from his point of view it’s not true.
“We want to show Canadians the real China,” he said.
“It’s very important for the relationship between Canada and China.”
Zhou accused the Chinese Embassy of paying to have people come to Ottawa for a rally to support Hu. However, Jin Xue, one of the organizers of the pro-government rally, said that is not true.
“According to them, everything the Chinese government has done is wrong, nothing is ever right,” he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in China last December. That was Harper’s first to visit to China since coming to power in 2006.
